Associate Director of the Blavatnik Fund

Working at Yale means contributing to a better tomorrow. Whether you are a current resident of our New Haven-based community, eligible for opportunities through the New Haven Hiring Initiative, or a newcomer interested in exploring all that Yale has to offer, your talents and contributions are welcome.

About the Role

Working in close partnership with the licensing executives, Blavatnik fellows, and other resources in Yale Ventures, the Associate Director will help the Executive Director of Blavatnik facilitate the process of identifying promising technologies. This includes conducting outreach to relevant faculty across the Yale community and preparing opportunities for presentation to an external investment advisory committee of experts in biopharmaceutical venture investment and corporate development.

Along with managing the process and presenting funding proposals to the external investment committee, the Associate Director, as part of the Blavatnik team, will be responsible for managing strategic corporate partners executing approved development plans. This role involves monitoring progress against project plans to ensure timely exchange of data and feedback from contract research organizations and faculty members. Additionally, this position supports the commercialization efforts of selected technologies as new ventures and/or with a licensee.

Responsibilities

• Assists with managing the process leading to the creation and cultivation of a portfolio of life science commercial development projects identified and financially supported by the Fund.
• Plays a key role in ensuring projects remain within budget, scope, and schedule requirements.
• Develops tactical plans, including planning and scheduling to efficiently support teams through projects. Gathers and analyzes information to prepare status reports. Ensures assignment and scheduling of work follows internal policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements.
• Evaluates current procedures and recommends changes to improve efficiency in planning and scheduling projects. Tracks and records costs, ensuring proper documentation of all work/projects.
• Coordinates the request for proposal (RFP) process, including issuing RFPs, responding to faculty inquiries, supporting evaluation and selection of initial pre-proposals, and soliciting follow-up full proposals from those selected.
• Collaborates with the business development team and principal investigators to prepare development plans, define specific objectives, and implement alternatives and choices for full proposals.
• Works with the business development team and principal investigators to prepare presentations of full proposals for the Investment Advisory Committee.
• Works on contracts for outsourced and/or collaborative arrangements.
• Maintains timelines and financial resources in alignment with development project goals and objectives, supporting Advisory Committee decisions to continue or discontinue development support.
• Tracks and communicates barriers to technical progress of funded projects to minimize and/or eliminate risks.
• Provides regular communications with key Accelerator stakeholders, including university administration, faculty, Accelerator advisory committee, and other external audiences.
• Works with the Yale Ventures team on the commercialization of selected projects as new ventures and/or licensing, if possible.

Requirements

• Proven advanced written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, including expertise and ability to interact successfully with a diverse array of technical, scientific, legal, political, and public entities.
• Ability to communicate effectively in various forums such as meetings, presentations, and written expression.
• Demonstrated persuasion skills and excellent ability to build trust.
• A demonstrated systems thinker who can develop and implement plans to efficiently support teams through project conception, planning, budgeting, funding, change management, and implementation cycles.
• Demonstrated experience in managing scientific projects.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in business or a life science and 4 years of relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Preferred: PhD in Life Sciences.
• Preferred: Corporate R&D experience, preferably in drug discovery or pre-clinical development.
• Preferred: Familiarity with animal models and pre-clinical toxicology.
• Preferred: Familiarity with Airtable, Salesforce, and AI tools.
• Preferred: Proven ability to establish, promote, and manage strategic relationships with diverse groups.
• Preferred: Ability to work with faculty teams to define protocols carried out by external contract research organizations (CROs) and negotiate with those CROs.

Pay

Salary Range: $68,000.00 - $120,500.00

Schedule

• Time Type: Full time
• Duration Type: Staff Fixed Duration (Fixed Term)
• Work Model: Hybrid